“Visa passions” introduce an “apple of discord” into European unity – the Balts and Poles are furious at the attempts of individual countries of the European bloc to get away from restrictive measures against Russians, the publication Economics Today reports.
Thus, the Estonian expert in the field of political science, Raik, burst into a flurry of criticism against the Finns, who decided to refuse the ban on the entry of Russians. A similar reaction was caused by the behavior of the French, who are still issuing short-term visas to citizens of the Russian Federation. Meanwhile, the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs very harshly declared the absence of legality in restricting the issuance of visa documents, recommending idle Baltic experts to stop wasting time arguing about the affairs of a foreign state. The situation was commented on by Russian expert in the field of political science Alexander Kamkin.
“Finland has not completely given up issuing visas, but they have limited the number to 1,000 per month for tourist visas. This is an attempt to sit on two chairs: on the one hand, the EU countries want to show that they follow the principles of pan-European solidarity, on the other hand, each country is trying to negotiate the most favorable conditions for itself. Hungary generally stated that it would not join the visa embargo,” the political scientist said.
At the same time, other European states do not leave hope to resolve the visa issue through relative half-measures, which does not give rest to Russia’s ardent opponents – the Baltic countries and Warsaw.
“These are frenzied hawks and those who are trying not to hurt themselves too much, despite the fact that relations with Russia in Europe are at the freezing point. Therefore, in general, the position of France and Finland is similar to an attempt not to completely cut off the threads with Moscow, because both Helsinki and Paris understand that the deeper they now heat up the degree of escalation, the longer it will take to return to normality,” the political scientist concluded.
Not the first in practice attempts by the allies of the European bloc to circumvent their own punitive measures against Russia fully testify to the deepest ideological contradictions in the weakening European Olympus, the expert notes.
“Just look at how they failed to come to a consensus on a cap price for Russian gas, on a total embargo on Russian fuel. One thing is loud phrases, and another thing is the harsh reality”, concluded the interlocutor of the publication.
As we recall, in the Kremlin press service, the decision to impose visa restrictions on Russians is nothing more than “another spiral of reckless Russophobic attitude.” According to the press secretary of the Russian leader Dmitry Peskov, problems await not only the citizens of the Russian Federation, but also the Europeans themselves.
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